Trial to simplify fares behind schedule, but progressing

THE Rail Delivery Group (RDG) has confirmed to The Railway Magazine that plans to simplify rail fares (RM June 2017), announced in February, are still being progressed.

Despite the RDG and the Department for Transport (DfT) initially suggesting the three-fares projects would go live by May this year, the earliest start date for just one of the trials is expected to be January 2018.

The RDG says it has been working to develop an effective way to update and simplify the complex contractual fares structure inherited from British Rail. This structure has not been overhauled since 1993 when it was finalised in readiness for Privatisation.

The fares database contains detail around the ownership of routes and fares, with millions of fares interlinked contractually between train operators and many also controlled by Government regulation.

Read more in the October issue of RM – on sale now!

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